Returning Itachi
by 713stars
Summary: He was back, but he was gone. Itachi is returned to the Uchiha district after his death, as per a request he made years ago. Kisame centric for chapter one. Naruto centric chapter two. Rating for language.


**Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto.**

**Uh, well, this is just Blue's little piece. Love kisame (but not kisaita, sorry)! And, I guess this is AU, a little. Itachi just got to live a little longer, so Naruto is back in the village and the other members of his generation are a little older. This should be one of two or three parts.**

The bell was silent. It hung morosely, seeming to strain towards the ground. But that may have just been because the straw hat itself was bent forward in thought. It was bent so far forward that its shadow would have fallen over the limp body in Kisame's arms if there had been any light to cast shadows.

Itachi's hands were loosely folded across his bloody chest, black fingernails facing upwards to declare who he was despite his lack of Akatsuki attire. Dried blood—just flecks of it left—remained in his eyelashes and on his cheeks. His feet dangled and swayed with each of Kisame's mighty strides.

The blue man watched his partner's face as he cut through the fog, not needing to watch the ground in front of him. If something had tried to hinder him, it would have been crushed.

He walked for an hour—until he reached the chunin sentinel stationed at the gate. Then, Kisame looked up. His yellow eyes squinted in the half-darkness of a sunless dusk, and he could make out the shape of the lazy swirl that was the Konoha symbol.

Meanwhile, the chunin had been shouting at him to declare his purpose, relinquish all weaponry, etc. etc. But Kisame just growled low in his chest. "I'm not surrendering myself, you idiot" he snarled. He couldn't bring himself to drop Itachi and beat this kid to a pulp, but he wanted to. Oh gods did he want to.

"Hoshigake Kisame"

Kakashi--always late, but always arriving at an opportune moment--did not attack. He merely crouched on top of the gate, right above the distinctive symbol and watched Kisame with his Sharringan.

"Hatake-san," the swordsman rumbled softly, "I find myself wondering how long you've been following me".

"Long enough to know why you're here" Kakashi replied, still not covering his eye. "Let him through, Tsurei"

"What!" gasped the young man. His eyes widened at the silver-haired legend.

"I said, 'let him through'" Kakashi monotoned gravely.

And so the gate swung open for Hoskigake Kisame, nukenin and swordsman of the mist, and Uchiha Itachi, defector and murderer from Konoha.

Kakashi matched the blue man's stride, footstep for footstep as they walked down the dusty main road. ANBU flitted in and out of the trees on either side, watching Kisame warily and Kakashi with apparent confusion.

When they broke through the last of the trees and into the main village, there were more people waiting to escort Itachi and Kisame.

On either side of the road, the clan heads glowered. Council members tried to watch dispassionately, but failed and let mild curiosity set in around their eyes.

Tsunade stood in the road up ahead, her expression severe. She was casually tapping her fingers against her hip though, so she obviously wasn't too engrossed in the dark atmosphere.

Sakura stood behind her. Her stance was defensive, poised and coiled, but her eyes displayed no emotion. Her hand was on Naruto's shoulder, but it wasn't there to hold him back.

The blonde looked relaxed, not exactly happy, but not scared or angry or any of the other things Kisame had expected. Actually, the kid didn't even seem to recognize him. Instead, those wide blue eyes were locked on Uchiha Itachi's unmoving bosom.

Perhaps thinking that the dead man looked too much like his brother?

"Jeeze, I don't need a welcoming committee. Just tell me where the Uchiha district is and I'll be on my way, alright?" Kisame growled at the crowds.

The younger ninja and the ones who hadn't fought in years all took a step back from the main road. Of course, when they realized that the strong had not budged, they all shuffled back, pretending that they had just been leaning back on their heels.

Suddenly, there was a flash of purple and brown. Neji appeared to Tsudande's left, glaring at Kisame with his Bakuguyan (spelling sorry) straining. He didn't wait for the hokage to look at him before he spoke.

"Real corpse of Uchiha Itachi. No weapons other that eight kunai, four exploding tags, six senbon concealed in a band on left bicep, and the Samehada" he said.

"No summoning scrolls, sealing scrolls, or means of tracking?" Tsunade asked.

"No" scowled Neji. His eyebrows sunk a little lower, reminding the blonde woman how much the young man hated it when his competency was questioned.

She quickly compensated. "Sorry. I know you would have told me. I'm used to dealing with the last ANBU captain, who I didn't trust as much" she said, not bothering to hush her voice.

Kisame's grinned at the last comment. "ANBU captain now, squirt? I guess it has been a while since I almost drowned you and your spandex frog team."

"Who are you calling a frog, Sharky?" grumbled a masked ANBU who was sitting in a nearby tree. Two buns were making little peaks in her hood.

"And Hairball! Nice to see you again, too" Kisame smirked. He was about to scan the crowd for "Mighty Guy" and Rock Lee, but then one of Itachi's hands slipped.

It dropped off his chest and swung slowly, like a pendulum pointing to the dirt of his home, demanding to be buried.

Suddenly, Kisame didn't feel like antagonizing the little leaf ninja anymore.

"Get you asses back home, everyone" Tsunade yelled as she put her hands on her hips, and this time everyone took a step back, "this is a private matter, not fodder for your little gossip circles"

"You, Hoshigake, follow me" Tsunade said, turning on her heel. "Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto, Neji…with me". Her order was followed by a sequence of rapid hand signals.

Kakashi was suddenly back by Kisame's side. Sakura disappeared in a poof of smoke and materialized a few yards behind them. Neji and Naruto slipped into the flank positions, each one with kunai securely wrapped in practiced fingers.

They began walking down the misty main avenue at a brisk pace set by an impatient blond hokage. Though she walked in front of everyone, it was easy to see her chafing irritation. True, it was very bad form to attack a ninja while he was delivering one of your village's missing ninja, but damn it, this was Akatsuki! At least they'd be able to attack and restrain the nukenin once the Uchiha was formally in Konoha custody.

"So are you asking for the reward for him, Hoshigake?" Tsunade yelled over her shoulder.

Kisame scowled. "Keep your money". He stopped moving. "And I believe, Hokage-san, that we just passed the Uchiha district"

"We're not going to the Uchiha district. We're going to the hospital to take care of your delivery" Kakahi said softly. He had also stopped in his tracks.

Kisame's eyes slid over to the legendary jounin. "Delivery?" he asked flatly. Then he allowed himself a little anger. "So much for Konoha's loyalty, I guess. I knew it was all bullshit, but Itachi, oh no. He said that you people would respect him enough to let him enter his home one last time. He said it was part of your fucking little code, and that you people _always_ kept your word". His voice was thick with disdain and disgust.

"Are you saying that burying Uchiha Itachi with the people he murdered wouldn't be sacrilege?" Tsunade hissed. She had finally stopped, but her back remained turned.

Not missing a beat, Kisame replied. "He didn't want to be buried there. He wanted to 'visit' the place one more time, then be buried…elsewhere"

A moment of ripe silence hung over the foggy street. The hanging lanterns on the side of the road were starting to glow visibly, but they did nothing to help the dark atmosphere.

"Fine" Tsunade said. "Kakashi go with him, the rest of you stay back. We're not falling into any ambush"

Naruto huffed, but refrained from argument when Sakura lightly knocked him on the shoulder. "Let's go". His pout didn't fade as he watched his sensei and his enemy disappear down beneath the largest gate on the inside of the village: the entrance to the Uchiha district.

"Come on!" Sakura called, and reluctantly, Naruto followed.

* * *

At first, they walked in silence. Kisame's heavy footsteps seemed enveloped by the silence of his partner's old home. As they walked though, the lights in the district--at least the outside ones--began to turn on.

Discomforted, Kisame looked to the lazy leaf jounin who was trailing him from a few feet behind.

"They respond to chakra, either large amounts of it or to Uchiha chakra" Kakashi said, responding to Kisame's tacit question.

"Both in this case" the swordsman grumbled.

Kakashi said nothing.

"Where's his house?" Kisame asked after a few more yards.

Kakashi sighed. "It's probably not the best idea to go by there. I can only imagine what would happen if Sasuke found out"

Kisame rolled his eyes. "Last request thing, remember? It's your duty as 'honorable leaf shinobi' to honor his last request even if he was a criminal". He stopped, waiting for Kakashi to take the lead.

"If a man asked to be allowed to live as his last request, we wouldn't grant him that, either. That rule has many exceptions" Kakashi replied smoothly, but then he whipped around with a kunai in his hand.

"Naruto"

"Yeah yeah, I'm here" the blonde teen sighed, leaping out of a tree and landing in a crouch, "But I've got this chakra suppression thing down pat, huh?"

"Go Naruto. Sakura will punch you into next winter if she ends up paying for a shadow clone's ramen" Kakashi said. His words were light, but his tone was stern. His shoulders were suddenly tense.

"Take a breath, Hatake. I'm not going to drag the jinchuriki (spelling sorry) out of here with the whole village ready to shish-kebob me the second I release this body" Kisame scowled.

"Yeah, come on, Kakashi-sensei. I want to talk to this bastard" Naruto said, taking a bold step forward towards the two ninja.

"Hey. Watch yourself" Kisame growled, not liking the "bastard" bit.

"Not you" Kakashi interrupted. "Naruto was referring to Uchiha Itachi. Right Naruto?"

Surprised by Kakashi's accurate guess, Naruto said nothing. After a pause, he nodded solemnly. "Yeah. The Uchiha bastard. Not you, fish-face"

Ignoring the insult, Kisame raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, about that…he's dead, in case you hadn't noticed"

Darkness had become thicker, but Naruto's shrug was still visible to Kisame's perceptive eyes. "Doesn't matter. If he'd been alive, I wouldn't have given him the chance to speak anyways"

Well, someone had changed a little bit since Kisame had last met him.

Before the conversation could get any more tense, Kakashi shighed silently. "Fine. Naruto you can come with us to the main house, but do yourself a favor and don't exchange parting words with the Uchiha until he's been actually buried"

"Sweet!" Naruto sang as he bounded over to his teacher. When he got there, though, he stopped. "Wait. You're not going to bury him there?" he asked, scratching his head and beginning to walk forward at the same pace as the impatient swordsman up ahead.

"No" Kisame replied from a few yards ahead. His voice echoed in the empty street.


End file.
